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Thursday, April 13, 2017

Yankees' Aaron Judge & The Safety Of Opposing Pitchers

The Yankees continued their Baby Bomber roll-out yesterday, with the MLB debut of Jordan Montgomery in their 8-4 win against the Rays. Monty Gumby pitched well, giving up 2ER in just under five innings, while striking out seven. He was helped by several of his teammates, including his right-fielder, the big guy, Aaron Judge.

Judge was 2-3 with a home run (his third in as many days) and three RBIs. After Brett Gardner's horrific collision with Rickie Weekes at first base, many people imagined what it would have been like had Judge been the one to collide with Weekes. The prevailing joke was that Weekes would have been dead.

Or, was it a joke? YES play-by-play man Michael Kay talked about Judge on his radio show yesterday. He specifically mentioned Judge's single up the middle off Jumbo Diaz. The shot missed Diaz's head by inches, and Kay admitted he'd been thinking the worst. There's never been an MLB player as big and as strong as Aaron Judge, he said, and unfortunately, the potential for the worst-case scenario is now front and center.

Well now, hold on just a minute, Kay. It's not like Aaron Judge has only just begun swinging the bat at his current weight and height. He played college baseball and spent three years in the minors. I would think that something horrific (or, close to it) would have happened by now.

That's the problem with Kay. He sees everything much worse than it actually is. Remember when he thought an injury to Jacoby Ellsbury a few years ago spelled doom for the entire team? Grains of salt, folks. Grains of salt.

Then again, it wouldn't be a bad idea for pitchers to wear kevlar-lined caps while pitching to Judge. Just sayin'. You know?